10-16-2023, 03:38 PM
As part 2 of our anniversary celebration (part 1 was JRAD http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=7831), we headed to SF for some of the ol' Richard Wag... my personal fav. As I may have mentioned before, the first concert ticket I ever bought with my own money was for Wagner's Die Walkure back in high school. And that too was SF Opera.
But first, we headed up to Tara's to pick up Bottles and take him and Yuki for a walk. Tara & Bri are just finishing up midterms so we thought we'd give them some space in exchange for them watching Yuki. We hiked about GGP. Now Stacy has been hiking local trails regularly. Her go to is 'the incline' at Nisene, which she does almost every week. I wasn't thinking, like usual, and was in my more formal wear, formal shoes, dress blazer, long sleeve shirt. And it was a climate change 70+ degrees at GGP. I was sweating like crazy. We logged 6 miles.
We got back and took the law students to lunch at their local Indian/Himalayan place on Geary (I think it's called Ocean). It was lovely. Just 7 blocks away. My SF legs have long disappeared and I was sweating even more.
After that, we scored some free parking adjacent to the projects, another several blocks. By the time I sat down in the Opera house, once again, I was a sweaty mess. So much for my attempt to look classy and dignified.
Our seats were row D, one seat from the edge of house left. They were magnificent for sound, so close to the orch pit, but a pain for reading the super titles. A pain in the neck.
Lohengrin is 3 acts, 4 1/2 hours with two intermissions.
Act 1: After all the exertion, I dozed off in my comfy opera house chair. I woke just in time for the sword fight - Lohengrin v Friedrich. It was totally dumb as sword fights go. Friedrich kept swinging his sword, and Lohengrin defeated him by using the force. But they were using a Kolombatovich Claymore, surely acquired from AFS. I drew all those swords so I know them well. It was heartening to know that we (yeti and I) contributed to this sword fight in some way.
I slammed an Irish coffee during the intermission and was ready to go.
Act 2: To me, Act 2 is the preparation. Wagner knew how to build musical suspense. He was a master of the brass fanfare. Melodic themes built up for the triumphant and climatic act to follow. This production was set in the 1920s, so the costumes were lame - trench coats, fedoras - plus there were rifles. Lohengrin is connected to the holy grail tale, so I wanted to see knights in armor. The sword fight seemed even dumber when their were rifles.
During intermission, Stacy and I were amused by a dude in a full skintight latex tux. Good ol' SF. Let that freak flag fly.
Act 3: Wagner kicks ass when it comes to preludes and the Act 3 prelude is one of his most recognizable pieces. I makes me want to charge into battle, lofting a sword whilst riding a winged horse. The orchestra killed it. This segues into Wagner's most famous piece ever - the wedding march. It's a beautiful piece, and it's interesting to know the lyrics as well as the context. Context is challenging for Wagner. He was a fascist. There's a malevolent fascist undertone to his work. His music inspired Hitler, and while the two weren't contiguous, Wagner would've surely been a nazi had he been born a half century later. Like Lovecraft's racism, it's difficult to reconcile. SF opera emailed an almost apologetic message preshow that was echoed in the intro. Summoning Ukraine and Israel, they tried to buffer the blow. But then the production totally goes for it as the army of Brabant (spear wielding, no more dumb rifles) are sporting German WWII helmets. Long hanging bright red swan banners echoed nazi totalitarian banners like the crossed hammers in Pink Floyd's The Wall. SF opera leaned into it, to great effect. The sets were brick buildings, leaning like Pisa, like WWII ruins. It was powerful imagery. But skip back to the wedding night, where Friedrich literally bursts through the set and attacks Lohengrin and Elsa in their bridal chamber swinging that Claymore like the madman that he is. That made me proud. And the finale, as Gottfried rises, lofting that Claymore triumphantly, well, it brought a tear to my eye. That may have been because Wagnerian opera is also something to survive. It's so epic, and consequently, so painfully long.
It was gorgeous production, except for the lame costumes and rifles. Musically, it was so on point. Lohengrin and Ortrud were amazing opera stars. All the four leads were fantastic, barrel chested opera singers (you need that level of lung acreage to even think about performing Wagnerian opera).
It was a wonderful show. One of the gift shop shirts captured it saying 'Life is short. Opera is long. Wagner is forever.'
But first, we headed up to Tara's to pick up Bottles and take him and Yuki for a walk. Tara & Bri are just finishing up midterms so we thought we'd give them some space in exchange for them watching Yuki. We hiked about GGP. Now Stacy has been hiking local trails regularly. Her go to is 'the incline' at Nisene, which she does almost every week. I wasn't thinking, like usual, and was in my more formal wear, formal shoes, dress blazer, long sleeve shirt. And it was a climate change 70+ degrees at GGP. I was sweating like crazy. We logged 6 miles.
We got back and took the law students to lunch at their local Indian/Himalayan place on Geary (I think it's called Ocean). It was lovely. Just 7 blocks away. My SF legs have long disappeared and I was sweating even more.
After that, we scored some free parking adjacent to the projects, another several blocks. By the time I sat down in the Opera house, once again, I was a sweaty mess. So much for my attempt to look classy and dignified.
Our seats were row D, one seat from the edge of house left. They were magnificent for sound, so close to the orch pit, but a pain for reading the super titles. A pain in the neck.
Lohengrin is 3 acts, 4 1/2 hours with two intermissions.
Act 1: After all the exertion, I dozed off in my comfy opera house chair. I woke just in time for the sword fight - Lohengrin v Friedrich. It was totally dumb as sword fights go. Friedrich kept swinging his sword, and Lohengrin defeated him by using the force. But they were using a Kolombatovich Claymore, surely acquired from AFS. I drew all those swords so I know them well. It was heartening to know that we (yeti and I) contributed to this sword fight in some way.
I slammed an Irish coffee during the intermission and was ready to go.
Act 2: To me, Act 2 is the preparation. Wagner knew how to build musical suspense. He was a master of the brass fanfare. Melodic themes built up for the triumphant and climatic act to follow. This production was set in the 1920s, so the costumes were lame - trench coats, fedoras - plus there were rifles. Lohengrin is connected to the holy grail tale, so I wanted to see knights in armor. The sword fight seemed even dumber when their were rifles.
During intermission, Stacy and I were amused by a dude in a full skintight latex tux. Good ol' SF. Let that freak flag fly.
Act 3: Wagner kicks ass when it comes to preludes and the Act 3 prelude is one of his most recognizable pieces. I makes me want to charge into battle, lofting a sword whilst riding a winged horse. The orchestra killed it. This segues into Wagner's most famous piece ever - the wedding march. It's a beautiful piece, and it's interesting to know the lyrics as well as the context. Context is challenging for Wagner. He was a fascist. There's a malevolent fascist undertone to his work. His music inspired Hitler, and while the two weren't contiguous, Wagner would've surely been a nazi had he been born a half century later. Like Lovecraft's racism, it's difficult to reconcile. SF opera emailed an almost apologetic message preshow that was echoed in the intro. Summoning Ukraine and Israel, they tried to buffer the blow. But then the production totally goes for it as the army of Brabant (spear wielding, no more dumb rifles) are sporting German WWII helmets. Long hanging bright red swan banners echoed nazi totalitarian banners like the crossed hammers in Pink Floyd's The Wall. SF opera leaned into it, to great effect. The sets were brick buildings, leaning like Pisa, like WWII ruins. It was powerful imagery. But skip back to the wedding night, where Friedrich literally bursts through the set and attacks Lohengrin and Elsa in their bridal chamber swinging that Claymore like the madman that he is. That made me proud. And the finale, as Gottfried rises, lofting that Claymore triumphantly, well, it brought a tear to my eye. That may have been because Wagnerian opera is also something to survive. It's so epic, and consequently, so painfully long.
It was gorgeous production, except for the lame costumes and rifles. Musically, it was so on point. Lohengrin and Ortrud were amazing opera stars. All the four leads were fantastic, barrel chested opera singers (you need that level of lung acreage to even think about performing Wagnerian opera).
It was a wonderful show. One of the gift shop shirts captured it saying 'Life is short. Opera is long. Wagner is forever.'
Shadow boxing the apocalypse